Spoken of unprofitable persons, who in the English proverb, "rob Peter to pay Paul." _The king's errand may come the cadger's gate yet._ A great man may need the service of a very mean one.
_The maut is aboon the meal._ His liquor has done more for him than his meat.

The man is drunk.
_Mak a kirk and a mill o't._ Turn a thing to any purpose you like; or rather, spoken sarcastically, Take it, and make the best of it.
_Like a sow playing on a trump._ No image could be well more incongruous than a pig performing on a Jew's harp.
_Mair by luck than gude guiding._ His success is due to his fortunate circumstances, rather than to his own discretion.
_He's not a man to ride the water wi'._ A common Scottish saying to express you cannot trust such an one in trying times.

May have arisen from the districts where fords abounded, and the crossing them was dangerous.
_He rides on the riggin o' the kirk._ The rigging being the top of the roof, the proverb used to be applied to those who carried their zeal for church matters to the extreme point.
_Leal heart never lee'd,_ well expresses that an honest loyal disposition will scorn, under all circumstances, to tell a falsehood.
A common Scottish proverb, _Let that flee stick to the wa'_, has an obvious meaning,--"Say nothing more on that subject." But the derivation is not obvious[146].

In like manner, the meaning of _He that will to Cupar maun to Cupar_, is clearly that if a man is obstinate, and bent upon his own dangerous course, he must take it.

But why Cupar?
and whether is it the Cupar of Angus or the Cupar of Fife?
_Kindness creeps where it canna gang_ prettily expresses that where love can do little, it will do that little, though it cannot do more.
In my part of the country a ridiculous addition used to be made to the common Scottish saying.